A $1.32 million Justh & Hunter gold ingot and a $1.02 million 1863 Liberty double eagle graded PF-65+ Cameo from the Bob R. Simpson Collection led Heritage Auctions' Central States U.S. Coins Signature Auction to $42,279,919 in sales May 4-8.
The sale was one of three Heritage Central States events. The World Coins & Ancient Coins Platinum Session and Signature Auction raised $14,449,912, and the U.S. Currency Signature Auction $8,880,557. More than 12,100 bidders attended the events, which raised $65,610,388 in total sales, a Central States auction record.
We saw numerous new records set, many by unprecedented margins,” said Heritage president Greg Rohan. The Simpson and Warren collections' highlights will go down in numismatic auction history.
Two ingots were sold, including the Justh & Hunter. A 238.84-ounce Henry Hentsch gold ingot sold for $540,000. S.S. Central America's 1857 Category 2 hurricane sinking were assumed to have destroyed the ingots forever. After a century, ocean engineer Tommy Thompson organized the gold recovery in 1988, spending four summers collecting two tons of the missing gold. Thompson sold both of his first ocean floor ingots.
From Part VII of The Bob R. Simpson Collection, the 1863 Liberty double eagle doubled the auction record. PCGS ranks Simpson's collection among the best ever. This coin is one of 30 minted. Both John Dannreuther and PCGS CoinFacts believe only 10-12 proofs, some damaged, survive in all grades.
Two are in the Smithsonian National Numismatic Collection and one in the American Numismatic Society. The best known Simpson example of this 19th-century oddity is up for auction.
Three lots above $500,000 and 59 had winning bids over $100,000, in addition to the two seven-figure properties.A 1915 S-less Panama-Pacific half dollar in gold, graded PF-64, from the Simpson Collection sold for a record $750,000
Two copies of this U.S. pattern series coin are known. A cut-down Saint-Gaudens double eagle strikes it. Eric Newman wrote that “Colonel” E.H.R. Green had two gold specimens, four silver specimens, and three copper specimens. These rare Philadelphia Mint strikes were illegally made before mintmark punches were fitted to the functioning dies.
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